Sixty-seven transactions were announced in the Baltic countries’ mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market in the first half of 2023, 20.2 percent less compared to 84 deals in the same period last year, the Lithuanian Verslo Zinios business news portal reported on Tuesday (in Lithuanian).
“All the half-years of 2021-2022 were better than this one, and the number of deals has decreased for the third half-year in a row. In other words, we have to go back to 2020, which was the year the pandemic started, to find a half-year with so few deals. At first glance, everything looks bleak,” Mantas Petkevicius, a partner at the law firm Sorainen, which compiled the Mergermarket statistics at the request of Verslo Zinios, told the news portal. According to him, the value of transactions decreased, too, and the market contracted in terms of overall transaction volume.
However, Petkevicius said that the market situation was better than it might seem, with more deals this year than at any time up to 2021: “The transaction market in the Baltic countries is slowing down compared to the record years 2021-2022, but it is certainly not dead.”
One of the most prolific M&A advisors in the market maintains a grounded perspective, pointing out that the local market witnessed record activity in 2021, with last year showing similarly robust performance.
The complete article can be found on vz.lt for more detailed information (in Lithuanian).
